HOW MUCH MORE DAMAGE ? - THE SUNDAY COMMENTARY
It is amazing that we are accomplishing anything as a nation at war. Those of you on the left will agree with this statement as the first thought that will pass through your mind is that,"President Bush took us into an illegal war and now uses illegal wiretaps violating our civil liberties. Everybody is against the war, the troops are demoralized and the military is a disaster." The words may not be exact but the thoughts are. This is the reason why I began this post with a statement of amazement that we are accomplishing anything. Never before in our history has the bitter hatred by the opposing political entity been so great that their actions have hampered and damaged the war effort as is happening today. Even in the bitter disagreements in the Civil War and the opposition that President Lincoln had from Democrats and those in his own Party and cabinet, they never let their opposition compromise Lincoln's ability as President to fight the war. The opposition in today's climate not only is compromising our ability to use necessary means to fight but it is also giving our troops reason to believe that the country is not behind them. Time and again their are reports from the front and from those who return home that our men and women in uniform are worried that they are losing support for them and their mission. Almost daily we hear reports of how the troops are discouraged and demoralized and are fed up with the war. But curiously these reports are NOT coming from the troops but from elected officials and spokes persons from the left who are against the war. The troops on the other hand with few exceptions are proud of their mission, want to complete it and state that moral is high. I share with you a video that proves just that, ( http://members.cox.net/jayc1832/Question%20Congressmen.wmv ). These same left wing and even some who claim being from the right are compromising our ability to gather intelligence from the enemy for a political goal. The NSA terrorist surveillance program has proven to be a vital necessity in the War on Terror yet this program is now compromised and its effective use is now questioned as the world hears in detail through Senate hearings what it is for and how it is used. Some question its legality. Yet even those who question it in Washington know that any President in a time of war has inherent abilities to protect this nation. They can read the FISA act as can anyone which through definition gives Presidential authority even if it did not if any statute ties the hands of the Constitutional authority of the Commander in Chief during a time of war as stated in second article of the Constitution and his oath of office to, "preserve and protect," then that statute is superseded by the Constitution. The authority that was given by Congress to use military means in September of 2001 also gives authority to gather the necessary intelligence to execute those same military means and this means electronically listening in on Al Qaeda.
The press and the left have continually attempted to portray this as, "domestic wiretapping." Leading the public to believe that our phone conversation are being listened to, which is a flat out LIE. Thoughout our history the President has authorized in a time of war programs that were necessary for the protection of the nation exercising his authority under the Constitution to protect this nation from her enemies. Woodrow Wilson had every telegraph cable sent and received from overseas viewed to search for enemy intelligence yet the Senate never investigated his program. FDR intercepted cable and phone conversations both at home and abroad to gather enemy intelligence and yet his programs were never investigated by the Senate. Harry Truman intercepted mail and phone conversation which I might add resulted in the execution of five German spies, yet the Senate never investigated his programs. By the way all three examples were Democrats. There are many other historical examples of a President exercising his authority as Commander in Chief during a time of war that can be given. The point is that in each instance it was understood whether the opposing party agreed with the President or not that his authority under the Constitution was necessary in war to protect the nation. Therefore the programs were not compromised by a political public hearing that has only as its goal the attempt to destroy a President hated by his opposition. Many of you will state that Arlen Spector the Judiciary Committee Chairman questions the legality and he is a lawyer. I counter with Senator Pat Roberts the Intelligence Committee Chairman who also is a lawyer that states the opposite and both are Republicans. As far as Spector I have always questioned his politics and believe that any man who can invent the , "magic bullet theory, " as Spector as a junior council under then Congressman Gerald Ford did during the Warren commission investigation of the Kennedy assassination should be questioned, but that is another commentary.
We are at war and though as a free society we should cherish our rights and freedoms, when those rights and freedoms are used to compromise our security it is then that we cross a fine line between sanity and lunacy. The politics of political destruction that the left and their media counter parts use claiming freedom of speech threaten our security the moral of our troops and our ability to use any and all means necessary to defeat an enemy that will stop at nothing to destroy our way of life and each of us who proudly call our selves Americans. This is not calling into question the patriotism of the opposition but their judgment as to how they are choosing to oppose. When opposition threatens the nation it is then that it becomes wrong! Dissenting is a Constitutional right but not to the point that it takes away and destroys the means by which we protect that freedom.
Ken Taylor
The press and the left have continually attempted to portray this as, "domestic wiretapping." Leading the public to believe that our phone conversation are being listened to, which is a flat out LIE. Thoughout our history the President has authorized in a time of war programs that were necessary for the protection of the nation exercising his authority under the Constitution to protect this nation from her enemies. Woodrow Wilson had every telegraph cable sent and received from overseas viewed to search for enemy intelligence yet the Senate never investigated his program. FDR intercepted cable and phone conversations both at home and abroad to gather enemy intelligence and yet his programs were never investigated by the Senate. Harry Truman intercepted mail and phone conversation which I might add resulted in the execution of five German spies, yet the Senate never investigated his programs. By the way all three examples were Democrats. There are many other historical examples of a President exercising his authority as Commander in Chief during a time of war that can be given. The point is that in each instance it was understood whether the opposing party agreed with the President or not that his authority under the Constitution was necessary in war to protect the nation. Therefore the programs were not compromised by a political public hearing that has only as its goal the attempt to destroy a President hated by his opposition. Many of you will state that Arlen Spector the Judiciary Committee Chairman questions the legality and he is a lawyer. I counter with Senator Pat Roberts the Intelligence Committee Chairman who also is a lawyer that states the opposite and both are Republicans. As far as Spector I have always questioned his politics and believe that any man who can invent the , "magic bullet theory, " as Spector as a junior council under then Congressman Gerald Ford did during the Warren commission investigation of the Kennedy assassination should be questioned, but that is another commentary.
We are at war and though as a free society we should cherish our rights and freedoms, when those rights and freedoms are used to compromise our security it is then that we cross a fine line between sanity and lunacy. The politics of political destruction that the left and their media counter parts use claiming freedom of speech threaten our security the moral of our troops and our ability to use any and all means necessary to defeat an enemy that will stop at nothing to destroy our way of life and each of us who proudly call our selves Americans. This is not calling into question the patriotism of the opposition but their judgment as to how they are choosing to oppose. When opposition threatens the nation it is then that it becomes wrong! Dissenting is a Constitutional right but not to the point that it takes away and destroys the means by which we protect that freedom.
Ken Taylor
posted by The Liberal Lie The Conservative Truth | 9:32 AM
16 Comments:
Let me just touch briefly on the fury I hold about the masses that decide to criticize the "mission" and not the troops. If you care about us get behind the "mission", because once it is complete we come home!
To hear battle cries from the homeland adds to the fight. There will be many that never really understand the need for that support. Just like in a sports event, the more you support the forces you can make it a "home game." But since there are too many that cannot or are unwilling to wrap their little minds around this concept, too bad. But as the Armed Forces of the United States of America have done for years, what the American public does not give us will be made by us…And used to complete our duty.
Most of us do believe in our mission, I am honest to not say all, but that majority is overwhelming. Sometimes the best thing to do is not the easiest.
It is the same people on the left that try to prevent any and all criticism of Murtha or any other Vet willing to speak down on the war and morale of troops, yet they are willing to support the slander of my Commander in Chief and all supporters.
Allow it all, or stop it all. If you cannot take it, don’t dish it out. If the left wants to call us war hungry hawks, then why can’t we call them pacifist wimps? (Oh, because it isn’t nice.)
Wow, impassioned but wrong as usual. It is clear that there are a growing number of REPUBLICANS who are questioning Bush on his illegal wiretaps.
As for Bush's efforts as C-in-C, Afganistan not only made sense but there was a clear mission and a need to go after bin Laden. Of course he has failed as bin Laden is still on the loose and Afghanistan is largely run by the same warlords as before. In addition, drug production and trafficking is at an all time high. While the need to invade Afghanistan existed, the same cannot be said about Iraq which is why we find ourselves spinning our wheels in Iraq.
I don't think Iraq was an "illegal" war - I think it was a misguided and idiotic war. We don't need to get into the fact that there were no WMDs, there were U.N. weapons inspectors in Iraq that were told to leave by Bush, and all of the evidence that Bush and the neocons suppressed contrarian intelligence to their desire attack. That is well known and well documented.
But think about this idea: We will send a mostly Christian American Army into the heart of the Middle East and the folks there will be happy about it. Stupid on its face. You cannot put an occupying force into L.A. or Chicago, or New York and expect to succeed - it is ridiculous to think it would be welcome in Iraq.
I certainly do not believe Republicans are all war hungry hawks and Democrats are pacifist wimps. Within both parties you have vets, as well as hawks, pacifists, and those in between. We are all Americans and I am not aware of a single American who wants to lose in Iraq or for terrorists to win - but I do think it is appropriate to question a President who breaks laws and demonstrates such incompetence.
Questions:
1. If the American people are so "against the war", then why did they vote Bush in again in 2004?
2. If the American people are so "against the war", then why did the Democrats cave in on reauthorizing the Patriot Act?
3. If the American people are so "against the war", then why do the Dems crack anytime they are accused of being soft on defense?
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Seems to me the American people are FOR THE WAR.......but the only fools WE HEAR FROM are those who aren't.
The majority may be silent, but it is for the war.
Don’t give me this bull about UNMOVIC! Let’s get the truth. After the Gulf War inspections began in Iraq. Then Iraq decided to stop helping and eventually kick the UN inspectors out in 1998. No worries, there is a new team in by ’99, rejected by Iraq. Rejected again in 2000, and again in 2002.
“For nearly three years, Iraq refused to accept any inspections by UNMOVIC. It was only after appeals by the Secretary-General and Arab States and pressure by the United States and other Member States, that Iraq declared on 16 September last year that it would again accept inspections without conditions.” –Hans Blix JAN272003
“Today, it is thanks in large part to the firm challenge issued by President Bush – and the pressure that followed it – that the inspectors are back in Iraq.” –UN Sec.-Gen. Spokesman FEB082003
So the President advising the UN team he is sick and tired of Saddam screwing around is wrong? He should have started bombing without getting the UN teams out? Come on. Saddam was never going to disarm, and you have a corrupt organization that was supposed to be disarming him. This whole discussion is a joke. If you want to believe Saddam was ever going to really cooperate, you are a sad sad soul.
If you want to live with “well the inspections were working in the mid-90’s.” God help you. I am sure that about 5-6 years prior to WWII there weren’t many Concentration Camps (in hindsight it is an error to assume havoc is not occurring behind the scenes), or are you on the trip with Iran where they NEVER existed?
If you can sleep with thinking “Saddam promised” and his word is good enough, well that is your problem.
Calm down mdconservative, I never referred to the 1990s inspections. The fact is that Hans Blix and the U.N. had unfettered access to any and all locations within Iraq immediately prior to the U.S. invasion. Bush told them to get out - not Saddam.
Think about this - Bush told Saddam to disarm or he would face consequences. Saddam told him he had no weapons and gave the U.N. full access. Turns out Saddam was right and nearly 2300 American soldiers have lost their lives, thousands have been injured, and taxpayers are stuck with a $400 billion tab. On top of everything else, the selection of Ibrahim al-Jaafari as Iraq's prime minister shows the growing power of anti-American fundamentalists within the new Iraqi parliament. Read about it - don't take my word for it.
Pero - the nation is now against the war. Believe what you want.
EVIL americans. You are satan worshippers who have always been at war. Brain dead americans kept totally ignorant of the outside world. I was not in favor of your illegal invasion of Iraq. Saddam used to be donny r dumbsfelds boy in the middle east to threaten the Iranians who overthrew your former puppet the shah of Iran. Original speculation was for the need of at least 400,000 boots on the ground to secure the country for transition to a democracy. My contention is the hawkish administration wanted to encourage a fight in Iraq and deliberately sent in insufficient forces to secure the peace so as to initiate a massive conflict. In this massive internal regional confllict all possible citizens with a preponderance for terrorist acts would be encouraged to die fighting for either the democracy or particular ethnic group. donald rumsfeld will go down in history as one of the most incompetent military strategists in the history of the world. You idiots opened up pandora's box and made the u.s. military look like a bunch of inept evil idiots. Appointing gonzales to attorney general for his attempts to weasel america's way around the Geneva Conventions on torture is another demonstration of american evil.
Your government not only spies on everybody totally unrelated to al qaeda but hawkish ultra neo conservative plutocratic fascists in your adminsitration and american multinational corporations subcontract out spying to organized crime, the mainstream media and private suppliers of information acquired by illegal means. You are right you you have been at war against the spread of communism inside american for more than the last half century. Do you actually presume to contend that america has not been spying on innocent citizens . There is a camera above your toilet, your bed, your kitchen table, your computer. When american intelligence agencies want to remain at arms length they subcontract the installation of surveillance equipment to organized crime. Here in British Columbia, Canada your american intelligence agencies subcontract work to the hells angels. The hells angels profits estimated in excess of 4 billion dollars a year marijuana sales allows the hells angels incredible finances to break and enter and install surveillance systems on who ever or where ever they please and counter surveillance equipment to prevent themselves from being caught easily. The hells angels own downtown vancouver. The hells angels communications system is superior to the police on the street. Every crack head or dealer or dumpster diver is used, connected by cellphone to do various tasks for hells angels subcontract fulfillment for your big bad spy agencies. You really are a fool if you think the collaboration between your government big corporate business, organized crime and the media doesn't exist and isn't actively pursuing assaulting, intimidating and harrassing anyone to the left of ultra neo conservative pltuocratic fascist: Martin Luther King Jr., John F Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, Jesse Jackson. There are almost 300,000,000 million fools in america all fired up on naziesque orwellian propaganda and to stupid to see their own reversal of fortue unfolding beneath their very eyes. You rob from the poor to give to the rich and your lack of an investment in an education, health care, essential services for the people
has left you exponentially behind the Chinese and the Indians. China turned out more than 800,000 researchers last year, about 20 times more than america and they work for probably 10 times less money. These numbers come from the media so who really knows the accurate figures. The media's favorite job seems to be producing evil content and by what I see you writing they have been successful. You are an evil corporate aristocracy a plutocratic fascist state that can't do the math as evidenced on Wall Street, Enron, Tyco, World Com, and on and on and on.
A rational dialogue with you is a ridiculous waste of time. You have chosen to believe lies over the truth. Naziesque orwellian propaganda and you prove it works you absolute idiot. You are not patriotic, your stupidity is seditious to the survival of america as a world leader you dummy murderous zombie.
EVIL americans. You are satan worshippers who have always been at war. Brain dead americans kept totally ignorant of the outside world. I was not in favor of your illegal invasion of Iraq. Saddam used to be donny r dumbsfelds boy in the middle east to threaten the Iranians who overthrew your former puppet the shah of Iran. Original speculation was for the need of at least 400,000 boots on the ground to secure the country for transition to a democracy. My contention is the hawkish administration wanted to encourage a fight in Iraq and deliberately sent in insufficient forces to secure the peace so as to initiate a massive conflict. In this massive internal regional confllict all possible citizens with a preponderance for terrorist acts would be encouraged to die fighting for either the democracy or particular ethnic group. donald rumsfeld will go down in history as one of the most incompetent military strategists in the history of the world. You idiots opened up pandora's box and made the u.s. military look like a bunch of inept evil idiots. Appointing gonzales to attorney general for his attempts to weasel america's way around the Geneva Conventions on torture is another demonstration of american evil.
Your government not only spies on everybody totally unrelated to al qaeda but hawkish ultra neo conservative plutocratic fascists in your adminsitration and american multinational corporations subcontract out spying to organized crime, the mainstream media and private suppliers of information acquired by illegal means. You are right you you have been at war against the spread of communism inside american for more than the last half century. Do you actually presume to contend that america has not been spying on innocent citizens . There is a camera above your toilet, your bed, your kitchen table, your computer. When american intelligence agencies want to remain at arms length they subcontract the installation of surveillance equipment to organized crime. Here in British Columbia, Canada your american intelligence agencies subcontract work to the hells angels. The hells angels profits estimated in excess of 4 billion dollars a year marijuana sales allows the hells angels incredible finances to break and enter and install surveillance systems on who ever or where ever they please and counter surveillance equipment to prevent themselves from being caught easily. The hells angels own downtown vancouver. The hells angels communications system is superior to the police on the street. Every crack head or dealer or dumpster diver is used, connected by cellphone to do various tasks for hells angels subcontract fulfillment for your big bad spy agencies. You really are a fool if you think the collaboration between your government big corporate business, organized crime and the media doesn't exist and isn't actively pursuing assaulting, intimidating and harrassing anyone to the left of ultra neo conservative pltuocratic fascist: Martin Luther King Jr., John F Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, Jesse Jackson. There are almost 300,000,000 million fools in america all fired up on naziesque orwellian propaganda and to stupid to see their own reversal of fortue unfolding beneath their very eyes. You rob from the poor to give to the rich and your lack of an investment in an education, health care, essential services for the people
has left you exponentially behind the Chinese and the Indians. China turned out more than 800,000 researchers last year, about 20 times more than america and they work for probably 10 times less money. These numbers come from the media so who really knows the accurate figures. The media's favorite job seems to be producing evil content and by what I see you writing they have been successful. You are an evil corporate aristocracy a plutocratic fascist state that can't do the math as evidenced on Wall Street, Enron, Tyco, World Com, and on and on and on.
A rational dialogue with you is a ridiculous waste of time. You have chosen to believe lies over the truth. Naziesque orwellian propaganda and you prove it works you absolute idiot. You are not patriotic, your stupidity is seditious to the survival of america as a world leader you dummy murderous zombie.
Rob,
I am hoping that “anonymous” there gets an "impassioned but wrong as usual" comment from you. Please tell me you disagree with me but aren't as caught up on things as that guy.
As for the UN that is just not the case. Yes, Saddam was doing a lot to "help" inspectors. He was playing his hand at the poker table and seeing how long things can be bluffed. There are the details of one location being off-limits "until tomorrow." There were many locations left un-disclosed, in additions to records that would not be given, then about 9 months later after more US pressure the records were given. But now there was another group of records held secret, and the whole musical chairs game began again.
“It has not yet proved possible to obtain interviews with Iraqi scientists, managers or others believed to have knowledge relevant to the disarmament tasks in circumstances that give satisfactory credibility. The Iraqi side reports that it encourages interviewees to accept such interviews, but the reality is that, so far, no persons not nominated by the Iraqi side have been willing to be interviewed without a tape recorder running or an Iraqi witness present.”
-UN Briefing.
I guess, technically I am wrong. The Saddam regime did help a great deal by pressuring scientists to speak. Why do you think they chose not to? If recorded and they said "no weapons programs", they get a prize. If no witness or recording OR they speak out they are killed. Come on, I am able to deal with a consequence like that for myself but your average scientist is not.
There is intel that "objects" were moved to Syria. As well as broken up objects from Iraq arriving all over the world. I had all the evidence on my screen the other night, as well as the public information and I did not bookmark the pages. If you so desire I will go back and find it again.
Don't worry anon, I will get back to you later in the day.
Anon:
“You are satan worshippers who have always been at war. Brain dead americans kept totally ignorant of the outside world.”
-Roman catholic thanks, ignorant of the outside world? I have been all over this planet and thank God when I get back to the US.
“I was not in favor of your illegal invasion of Iraq.”
-Really? I would have never guessed. If you are so great why don’t you take your folks out of CMOC, we don’t need you here any more.
“Your government not only spies on everybody totally unrelated to al qaeda ...”
-Even if we wanted to spy on everyone, it is not possible to monitor nearly 300 million people 24/7. The assumption that is being made just shows you how you are stuck in an Oliver Stone movie. Please come off the grassy knoll with your imprudent idealistic socialist rubbish overflowing mind and step in to reality.
“There is a camera above your toilet, your bed, your kitchen table, your computer.”
-No there isn’t, nope, no, sometimes (in order). I have a very secure workplace (I promise you) and home. You must not treat Hollywood and reality as the same. Just because you saw it in “Enemy of the State” does not mean it is happening. If anything I would be more concerned if I were you. We love to do intelligence operations in other countries, so if all these cameras are around the house you have a much better chance of harboring them under your roof. Smile!
“… subcontract fulfillment for your big bad spy agencies.”
-Hate to tell you this but your government spied on the US, mostly for us. And we spied on Canada. Then shared the information when necessary. (Rarely would be upheld, much less even used in a court of law.) It a legal way to get around warrants. Sure we spy, but don’t be dim-witted and think that your “wonderful” country’s hands are clean. Spying is about information, not the court room and cases.
“… intimidating and harrassing anyone to the left of ultra neo conservative pltuocratic fascist: Martin Luther King Jr., John F Kennedy, Robert Kennedy…”
-In case you don’t know, the Kennedy family has always leaned a bit to the left (NOT RIGHT)! It was Robert Kennedy and JFK that used the government to spy on MLK Jr. I am lost in your logic there, but maybe you can explain a bit more.
“You rob from the poor to give to the rich and your lack of an investment in an education, health care, essential services for the people has left you exponentially behind the Chinese and the Indians. China turned out more than 800,000 researchers last year, about 20 times more than america and they work for probably 10 times less money.”
-Oh please let me move to China, please mom. Are you kidding? You want to talk about a country that wants to make sure that its people are ignorant of the outside world? They want Google to censor a search engine. So if it means turning out less researchers last year, but having the freedom to use Google, Travel, make a good living, and not be around communists, I choose America. And I am sorry but the fact you can make “10x” more money is why we have people pouring into our country. [Please note poverty section at bottom of this reply.]
“These numbers come from the media so who really knows the accurate figures.”
-Wow, you got one thing right.
“The media's favorite job seems to be producing evil content and by what I see you writing they have been successful. You are an evil corporate aristocracy a plutocratic fascist state that can't do the math as evidenced on Wall Street, Enron, Tyco, World Com, and on and on and on.”
-How dare our economy. Let me see, I am pretty certain that we help Canada out in some way, what could it be?
>>>Exports account for roughly a third of GDP. Canada enjoys a substantial trade surplus with its principal trading partner, the United States, which absorbs more than 85% of Canadian exports.<<<
I would assume by that you don’t want our economy to crash. You would not be getting you nice free (wait in line) healthcare anymore I bet.
“A rational dialogue with you is a ridiculous waste of time. You have chosen to believe lies over the truth. Naziesque orwellian propaganda and you prove it works you absolute idiot. You are not patriotic, your stupidity is seditious to the survival of america as a world leader you dummy murderous zombie.”
-If I rub you the wrong way that much, I must be doing something right. If you are not a citizen of the US, then you are in NO PLACE to tell me what it takes to be a Patriotic American. If you want to continue a post by repeating the same phrase, I guess this is a waste of time for you are not talking to a Nazi, traitor, zombie, or murderer. You are talking to someone with great pride in their country and who honestly feels that America is better than all. If you think using as many superfluous words makes a point, it doesn’t. If I am “just getting information” from media, that is not true. I have more information than you, BUT. Beside that little nugget. Where do you get your information? Honestly. TV, newspapers, the internet. That is all part of the media! Unless you only get news by what you see in front of you, in first person, you a hypocritical mess. Because… your friends and family have some contact with media and therefore tarnish your crystal clear point of view.
If my views came from this media you speak of, I would be demanding socialism and raising the white flag to every liberal, communist, and socialist in the world.
Canada is GREAT!
“The global survey of industrialized nations, Child Poverty in Rich Countries 2005, contradicts widely-held assumptions that the percentage of children living in relative poverty is declining across the economically-developed world. Instead, the report prepared by UNICEF’s Innocenti Research Centre found that only four OECD nations – United Kingdom, U.S.A., Norway and Australia -- have achieved significant decreases since 1990. Relative child poverty rates in Canada have not improved in the last 15 years.” –UNICEF
The info about material moved to Syria is Hannity's wet dream propoganda - he loves to say that rather than admit there are no WMDs. But, if you have some legitimate links I could be swayed.
The non-cooperation was prior to 1998 when the inspectors were withdrawn. You really should read Hans Blix's report to the U.N. prior to the U.S. invasion (http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/middle_east/iraq/blix_report.html).
"Iraq has on the whole cooperated rather well so far with UNMOVIC in this field."
-On the whole?
"I am obliged to note some recent disturbing incidents and harassment. ... While I might not defend every question that inspectors might have asked, Iraq knows that they do not serve intelligence purposes and Iraq should not say so."
After some UN workers happen to have a friendly tourist like visit at a Mosque:
"Shortly thereafter, we receive protests from the Iraqi authorities about an unannounced inspection and about questions not relevant to weapons of mass destruction. Indeed, they were not. Demonstrations and outbursts of this kind are unlikely to occur in Iraq without initiative or encouragement from the authorities. We must ask ourselves what the motives may be for these events. They do not facilitate an already difficult job, in which we try to be effective, professional and, at the same time, correct. Where our Iraqi counterparts have some complaint they can take it up in a calmer and less unpleasant manner.”
-Excuse me, I thought they were supposed to be allowed to have surprise inspections…go ANYWHERE!
"These reports do not contend that weapons of mass destruction remain in Iraq, but nor do they exclude that possibility. They point to lack of evidence and inconsistencies, which raise question marks, which must be straightened out, if weapons dossiers are to be closed and confidence is to arise."
"Regrettably, the 12,000 page declaration, most of which is a reprint of earlier documents, does not seem to contain any new evidence that would eliminate the questions or reduce their number. Even Iraq’s letter sent in response to our recent discussions in Baghdad to the President of the Security Council on 24 January does not lead us to the resolution of these issues."
On finding random documents at the homes of scietists:
"On our side, we cannot help but think that the case might not be isolated and that such placements of documents is deliberate to make discovery difficult and to seek to shield documents by placing them in private homes."
All the quotes are from your guy, Dr. Blix. All from Jan 2003, AFTER 2000 (I stress since this seems to be a hang up). Now those sure don't add up to the "everything is working" idea that people at the UN and liberals tend to have. Even after reviewing the link you put up, he doesn’t sound all that certain things were not going on.
The inspectors were in for two months. They conducted 300 inspections without incident and found nothing. We know the intelligence was flawed and there are plenty of folks saying they said so before the invasion. If the inspections had gone on instead of invasion we could have learned that there were no WMDs the easy way instead of the hard way.
"The non-cooperation was prior to 1998..."
I quoted Hans Blix, after '98 in 2003. Now those quotes have him saying that it was obvious that the regime was not playing by the rules, in certain cases. So we can do this over and over. Each time I seem to gain ground.
If you want to insist there was never anything in Iraq, that is one thing. Using Blix as you proof, that will not take you very far.
I never said there was never anything there. We know there were chemical weapons in the 1980s because Cheney, Rumsfeld, Bush I, and Reagan all sold Iraq weaponized chemicals. Saddam was a darling of the U.S. when they were at war with Iran. Killing Kurds was just an unfortunate byproduct of misguided American foreign policy.
However, I do believe that Saddam did not have WMDs when we invaded. If he had them why didn't he use them in the two Gulf Wars? What did he have to lose?
The U.N. had inspectors up and running for only two months but they found NOTHING. Nothing was found in the 300 inspections. Again, we had to learn the hard way that there were no WMDs rather than the easy way.
It's cool you think you are making ground - I have no idea why. There are no WMDs and it has cost us 2300 American lives and more than $400 billion. On top of that Bush has destabilized the region and made it much more dangerous. Iran is running Iraq - not the U.S. and we have no military option for Iran because of the new geo-political realities of the Middle East.
I love people that say we have no military option for Iran. Do you really believe that?
Yeah, I do. Of course we can always unilaterally attack but the consequences would be dire.
Iran is the second largest oil producer in OPEC. If we attack, we will basically send oil prices over $100/barrel which will require Americans to pay over $5/gallon of gas. It will kill our economy which requires growth in order to pay for the huge budget deficit ($400 billion), trade defict ($725 billion), and $2.5 trillion in additional debt Bush has added (record for 5 years). Contrary to what you may think, the U.S. does not just print more money to cover this debt - we sell debt largely to foreign investors in China and Japan. But hey, if you are willing to accept an economic recession and even possibly a depression how about the impact on Iraq.
We are battling a Sunni insurgency in Iraq. If we attack Iran it will cause the Shiite majority (the ones who are supposedly on our side) to rise up. Muqtada al Sadr has already pledged support to Iran should the U.S. or Israel attack. As hard as it is to believe, Iraq would actually be worse than it is now.
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